Can You Explain Your Product To Your Parents?

One of my favorite interview questions for technology product managers and marketers is to ask, "how would you explain <insert technology concept or product> to your parents."  If you can boil down your unique sales proposition down to a concept in simple English (if that is your primary language), then I am convinced that you have a strong enough chops to do the hard work of positioning, launching, and building great technology products. 

I was reminded of the value of getting to the core product proposition by my Dad.  The other weekend he mentioned to me that he was watching my interview with Robert Scoble and he didn't understand a single thing that I was saying.  He didn't know who Robert Scoble was and he didn't understand the point that I was trying to make about my product.  Now we all now that we have to cater our unique marketing and product messages to different audiences, but, I fundamentally believe that the core proposition has to be able to transcend the audience.  The wording may be more or less sophisticated based on the recipient but the core proposition should shine through.  For example, my Dad is not a avid technologist and isn't really interested in gadgets or technology trends.  The conversations went something like this:

"Dad have you ever seen a banner ad."
"Of course."
"Do you ever look at them."
"Rarely."
"Why?"
"Because the ads are not interesting and the product/services have nothing to do with what I am interested in."
"My company builds technology that makes banner ads more targeted and more interesting for the consumer and the advertiser."
"How do you do that"
"We learn what type of ads work for specific Web sites and use that knowledge to better target the ad and we make the ads more animated so that consumers want to look at them."
"Display (banner) advertising has not changed much in the last ten years its many billions of dollars in size.'
"Got it."

I did a post awhile ago that provided a guide to positioning.  Its hard work to boil your message down to something that can distinctively parked into a consumers mind.  Try using the "parent test" to see if your message has found its true point of distinctiveness.